A Panel of Women Wouldn’t Have Pulled ‘Nude’ Out: Ravi Jadhav

Director Ravi Jadhav who finds himself in the eye of a storm as his new Marathi film Nude was pulled out of the International Film Festival Of India (IFFI) at the last minute without informing him, says he’s ready to go through the process of submission again if at any point, he made a mistake in the process .

“I now hear that I submitted an incomplete film. This is news to me. I follow the protocol for submission at all film festivals. About three months before the IFFI, I sent them a screener of my film as I was asked to. The screener contained about 95 per cent of the film. After that the festival authorities were supposed to ask me to send the full film once they viewed the screener and approved of it. I got no email, no intimation from them after the screener was sent.”

Says Ravi, “Okay, so now if they’re saying I submitted an incomplete film, then let me say my film is now 100 per cent ready. I’m willing to send the complete film to the IFFI. Would they reconsider?”

Ravi Jadhav is now all set to take the legal route against the IFFI’s decision to yank his film out. In this legal fight, he is united with Malayalam filmmaker Sanal Sasidharan whose film S Durga was similarly yanked out of the festival.

Says Ravi, “I am in touch with Sanal. And will follow the legal route taken by him since I am not familiar with this procedure. It would have made no sense for me to thresh around in the legal system all by myself. I’d have got nowhere. Both of us are left with no choice but to ask the I&B ministry and the IFFI for an explanation through legal means.”

Ravi feels his film has been grossly misread by those in the I&B ministry who decided to withdraw its screening at the IFFI.

“Nude is a very sensitive film about the male gaze. I am sure if the I&B ministry had appointed a panel of women to watch my film they wouldn’t have decided to pull it out. Their decision seems to be based on an arbitrary reading of the film’s title and the subject of a nude model. But my film goes far beyond the nude female form. It can’t be treated as something to be hastily swept under the carpet just because the title makes some prudes uncomfortable.”